Lubricating device



Julie 23, 1931. G, 1, BANCROFT ET AL 1,811,343

LUBRICATING DEVICE Filed May 2l. 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet l June 23, 1931. -G. J. BANCROFT ET AL 1,811,343

LUBRICATING DEVICE Filed May 21. 192s 2 sheets-sneer 2 Patented June 23, 1931 li-iran STATES PATENT OFFICE GEORGE J'. BNCROFT AND MARTN E. ANDERSON, OF DENVER, COLORADO LUBREGATING DEVICE Application filed May 21, 1928. Serial No. 279,454.

This invention relates to improvements in branch is stopped up, the device Will be inoplubricating devices of the type employed for erative until this branch has been opened simultaneously lubricating a plurality of and practically all the force applied to the bearings. mechanism Will be employed in opening the i .Automobiles and other machines are probranch that is stopped up, thereby assuring 55 vided With a large number of bea-rings which positive lubrication of all the bearings conmust be lubricated at frequent intervals and nected With the device. for this purpose it is customary to provide The above and other objects which may beeach separate bearing with a valved nipple come apparent as this description proceeds o through Which a lubricant may be forced by are attained by means of a construction and U means of a device which applies pressure to arrangement of parts Which will n'oW be dethe lubricant. vW ith devices oi this type it is scribed in' detail, reference for this purpose necessary to connect the pump or other presbeing had to the accompanying drawings in sure device to each bearing separately in orwhich the preferred embodiment thereoi2 has der to obtain the desired results. been illustrated, and in which: @5

VIt is evident that the Work of lubricating Figure l is a diagrammatic view showing a machine having a large number of bearings the relationship of the several. elements emwould be greatly facilitated if it were possible PlOyeCl in this lubricating system; to simultaneously lubricate all the bearings. Figure 2 s a seCtOn taken 0n line 2-2,

zo The simultaneous lubrication of a large num- Fig. 3: 7e ber'ei bearings is not such a simple matter Figure 3 is a sec-tion taken on line 3 3, as appears at first sight as on a cursory eXam- Flg. 2;

ination it seems that it Would be'only a mat- Flglll' 4 is 2L seCtOH taken O11 line i- 1, ter of providing a large number of branches FME- l; y

from the pressure device to the dierent beai- Flglll's 5 1s a VertlCalsetion through a 75 ings. The problem, however, is not as simmod lfed fOriTl 0f this device; ple as this, for the reason that when a plu- Flgure 6 1S a sectlon taken on line @-6, rality of conduits are placed in parallel and F1g-- 5; each subjected t0 the Sam@ pressure Condi- Figure 7 is a vertical diagrammatic section 39 tions, if one pipe get-s stopped up, no lubriof a slightly modified form of construction; 8@

cant will loiv to the bearing with which it and is connected, While morel than v the usual i Flgule 8 1S a SfBCtlOD taken On llnc 8 8, amount will flow tothe other bearings, with Flg 7- such devices therefore it is impossible to ob- In Fgl numeral jl represents a grease tuin uniform lubrcutous, gun of the pressure type. 'This gun is of lt is the object of' this invention to produce T @ll lmOWH COHS'CFUCOH and is provided a lubricating device or system'of meansy of Wlill Plunge? 2 that C2111 be HIOVefl lOI1g1- which it is possible to positively lubricate all tUClHlllly l0f the CyllliCleI by means of a of a large number of bearings simultaneously ihres-ded I'Otltlbl@ 10Cl 3 WllOSS Outer end is 40 and t() distribute the lubricant in the propel" plOVlCleCl Wltll ZL lllliCllQ4. IOCl 3 1S 90 proportions to the several bearings, regard rotated. the plunger 2 1S forced mWlClly, less of the different resistances offered at the tllfeby lpplyll'g pressure to the grease condiiierent bearings or in the connectionsthere- @awed Wlt-llln the gun and WlllCb has been t@ indicated by reference numeral 5. This pres- This invention, brieiy described, consists SUT@ gun s COI}I1C ted by means 0i a metal a5 of a plurality of rigidly interconnected conduitto adistributor 7 This distributor pumps 0r pressure devices which can only has been illustrated 1n Figs. and 3 and move in unison and which Will therefore posi- Consists of a plurality of ring-lilre members tively torce lubricant through al large num 8 Which are spaced from each other by means VSi) ber of branches, for the reason that if one 0f separator-plates9 and Which have attached 10G to them end plates 10 and 11. Members 8 are of the shape shown in Fig. 3 and are each provided at each end with a cylindrical surface 12. These cylindrical surfaces are about one hundred eighty degrees in extent andare connected by either straight or arcuate surfaces 13. On one side of each of members 8 there is a threaded opening 14,to which the metal conduit 15 is connected in the manner shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The separator plates'9 are provided with openingsthrough which the shafts 16 and 17 gextend. The end plates 10 and 1'1 are provided with recesses or bearings 18 for the reception ofthe cylindrical ends 19 of shaft 17 Secured to the shaft 17 and located in the chambers between the separator plates 9 and the end plates v1() and 11 and between the separator plates are gears 20. There are two gears' located within each of the chambers above referred to. These gears are identical in construction Vand are each provided with teeth 21. One

gear in each chamber is secured to shaft 17 and thek other, vgear in the same chamber is mounted on shaft 16. It will be observed from Fig. 3l that shaft 17 is not round, ybut is provided with flattened sides 22 and that the gears that are associated vwith this shaft have openings constructed in a similar manner so that the gears cannot rotate with re# spect to shaft 17. It is apparent therefore thatall the gears connected 'with shaft 17 must rotate as a unit, or in other words, that they are rigidly interconnected. As the gears connected with shaft 17 are interconnected with those connected with shaft 16, the latter will rotate at the same speed as the gears on shaft 17. y

The conduit 6 is connected with an opening 23 in plate 11 and each ofthe separator plates 9 are provided with openings 211 so that each of thecompartments in the ringlike members l8 are connected with the con'- duit 6. Vhen the grease gun is operated to force lubricant through pipe 6, this grease will pass inwardly through the opening 23 and k.thence through openings 24, to each of the chambers.

illustrated in'Fig. 3 is 'welllrnown Due to A gear pump of the type its Apeculiar construction thegears will rotate in opposite directions in the manner indicated by the arrows in Fig; 3 whenever grease or other iowable materialis introl. duced under pressure into the chamber A,

there areffourdistributor units 7 a, each hav- The grease will therefore be 'carried ing four conduits 15a and therefore the capacity of this arrangement will be sixteen bearings, but it is evident that by increasing or decreasing the number of distributor units or by increasing the number.` of sets of rotary gear mechanisms in each, the capacity may be increased or decreased.

.The end plates 10 and 11, ring-like mem-v be of different thicknesses and that thereby the capacity of the gear pumps located within each of the rings can be varied so as to get a distribution of-the greaseto 'suit-the requirements of the bearingto which the conduits are connected, thus, for example, it is evident that some bearings require more grease. than others and such bearings should, therefore, be connected with the gear pump having the largest capacity.

In F ig. 4l I have shown a cross section of one of the tubes 15 and from this it will be seen that these tubes have been formed of an elliptical cross section so thatthey willyield somewhat if-subjected to excessive pressures. This yielding of the tubes acts as a` reservoir and serves tomakev the Ydevice operate some if' what better than if the tubes were entirely round and therefore unyielding. -v

Let us'now assume that the partsV are assembled in the manner shownin Fig. 1 and that the operator rotates the threaded rod3 by-means of thel handle 4: sol as to move the plunger 2 downwardly. This applies pressurey to the grease 5 ywhich-"is thereby caused to flow through the conduit 6 into the intake chambers A1of the several gear pumps com- 7.".

prising the unit 7. y The grease which is thus forced into the intake chambers will produce a force thatl tends to rotate the gears in the direction shown by thearrowsin Fig. 3. If all of the tubes 15 that extend from the outlet chambers B are open, grease willfio'w through capacity of the different pumps to which they areconnected. If the pumps areV all of the same capacity as lshown in theexample illustrated, it is evident that the same quantity ofgrease will. be extrudedvthrough each of the conduits15 in equal lengths of time.

Let'us now assume that one of the conduits 15 is stopped up-or offers al muchgreater resistance to the flow of the grease than any of the others.l As all of the gears f2() that are connected withshaft 17 must rot-ate at the same speed, vit is evident that grease must lbe forced through all of the' conduits or else these tubes in amountsvproportional to the ice therewill be no grease vflowing through any of them. All ofthe forcer exerted will therefore be used in openingfup any stopped conduit as the device will not operate until all the conduits are open. Each of the conduits 15 corresponds to theconduitb` andthe .operation ofzeach of the distributing devices 7a is similar to the operation oi the distributing device 7. It is, of course, obvious that the distributing device 7 should' be of larger capacity than the distributing devices 7a, although this is not essentialas the mechanism will operate even if the devices 7 L are as large as thefdistributor 7.

. From the above description it will be evident'that if one of the tubes 15a that is connected to one ofthe bearings isstopped up that lubrication of any other bearing will be prevented :until this particular bearing has been opened so as' to permit lubricant to flew toitpf.l

From the description above given, it will thereforebe'evident that with the mechanism described itis possiblel to simultaneously lubricate a large number of bearings and to be assured that every one of the dii'lerent bearings obtains v'its proportional amount ot lubricant. It the bearing should be stopped up so thatjlubri'cant cannot flow to it this will 'become 'immediately evident by the fact that .the yresistance offered to the flow of the grease will'beexcessive and it the applicati'onof a reasonable amount of force does not open the, stopped upv conduit,. the operator must then :determine which ofthe 'bearings isstopped up and; this can be accomplished byobserving the amount' of distortion of the elliptical tubes for the reasontha-t the tube that is stopped up willbe subjected to a much greaterpressure'than the othertubes and as its shape is suchi that it will change in proportion to the pressure applied, the operator can quite readily discover thebearing that required cleaning. f

`I 'lhe'inechanism above' describedv illustrates this invention quite clearly, but it is, of course, possible to employ mechanisms of specificaldilierent constructions and in Figs. 5 `and 6 a slightly modified form of device has been illustrated. In this device a cylinder has its lower end -threadedly connected at27 to theinner walls of a recess formed' in a' base 23;. A plurality ofcircular recesses 29 are formed in the base-with their'centers located onta circleconcentric with the centerof cylinder 26. Recesses 29 have vtheir inner walls threaded and connected. with each of these re'cesses'is` a cylinder- 30.1 These cylinders haveibeen'sho'wn of different diameters for the reason'that it is often desirable to force different quantitiesl of grease to different bearings as above intimated.. The interior ofthe cylinder'26 is connected with the interior Voli-'each of the-cylinders 30 by means otv openings 31.v c The passagef' through each of openings 31 is controlled by means of a ball check valve which has been indicated by numeral 32. The ball of the check valve is prevented from entering the cylinders as the latter is provided with small openings and act as stops for thisball. Located within the cylinder 26 is a plunger which has been indicated as awhole by numeral 33. Secured'to the upper end of cylinder 26 is a cap 34 which has a central threaded opening 35 for the reception of a threaded rod 35 whose upper endis provided with a handle 37. It is'evident that by rotating the rod 36 the plunger 33 can be moved 'upwardly or downwardly, depending on the direction of rotation. Located within each of the cylinders is a plunger 38. A rod 39 extends from the plunger outwardly through a central opening in cap 40. vFor the purpose of simultaneously moving the plungers 38, the outer surface of the cylinder 26 has been threaded as indicated by numeral 41. A hand wheel having a threaded hub 42 is operatively connected with the threaded surface of cylinder 26. This hand wheel has a flat flange 43 whose lower surface is adapted to come in contact with the upper ends of the rods 39.` This handv wheelis provided with a grip portion 44 that can be grasped by the operator for the purpose of rotating it. As the hand wheel is'rotated in such a direction that it moves downwardly along the cylinder 26, the plungers 33 will be moved downwardly within their cylinders in the manner quite apparent from the drawing. Connected with the interior of each cylinder A3() is a conduit 45 that extends to a bearing to be lubricated. Letus now assume that the device shown in Figure 5 is assembled -in the manner described and that the chamber Within cylinder 26 below the plunger 33 is filled vwith lubricant. The hand wheel 44 is rotated so asto move it upwardly as far as it will go or to a position indicated by dotted lines. The operator now grasps the handle 37 and rotates the rod 36 in such a direction that the plunger 33 is forced to move downwardly. The pressure thus exerted forces grease to flow through the 'openings 31 into each of the cylinders 30 and this forces the plungers 33 i upwardlyuntil the upper ends of the rods 39 come in contact with the lower surface of flange 43. lVhen the cylinders 30 have thus been filled with lubricant, the operator grasps the grip 44 of the hand wheel and rotates this so that it moves downwardly and this moves all of the plungcrs 38 downwardly at the same rate. lf one of the conduits 45 are stopped up, or has a. greater resistance 'force applied will be used to open up a llO . with their centers 'on' a circle concentric with stopped up conduit land "after this has been accomplished, -thegrease will be distributed uniformly inapredetermined proportions to the different bearings. The functionof the check vaive is to Vprevent an equalization Yof t-lie pressure between the different cylinders as 'this would prevent the stopped up pipe from-being opened. yIt is onlyby using check `valves thaty the device will lpositively function to open the conduit to a bearing that has become clogged.v

In Figs. 7 and 8 a slightly modified form of construction has been shown. In this construction a cylinder 46 forms the body membervof the device andthis is provided with a plurality-of lugs 47.that have openings'48 for the reception ofjboltsfor screws by means of which the devicecan be secured to a suitable :sup-port. The bottom of cylinder 46 is quite thick and .is vpro-vided withl a -plurality ofcylinders 49vthat may beof different diameters, rbut which are preferably loc-ated the cylindrical opening in member v46. Locatedwithin each yofthe cy-linders 49 is Va plunger 50. The upperends-of these plungfers areconnected to a guide yor piston 51 so that-they arerigidly interconnected and can only move as a unit.. The upper -end of cylinder 46 is threaded as indicated by numeral v 52 and has securedto'it a ycap 53. This cap has a. central threaded opening 54 for the reception of athreaded rod 55, whose'upper end is provided with .a handle 56. rlhe lower end of .this rod has a collar 57 that engages the upperendof the-center `hub 58 of the piston 51.' :Rod 55 may also be provided with a central cylindrical portion59 that eX- tends into anyopenifng inthe huby58 in the manner shown. y The bottom of the cylinder is providedfwitha central opening 60 which in turn is 'connected with each of the Vcylinders 49 .by meansfof openings Y61 within which are located fballs'62 that serve as check valves andV which prevent lubricant `from flowing from the cylinder 4,9 into the central opening 6,0, but ,which permit lubricant to flow in .the .opposite direction. A-nvopening 63 extends from thecentral opening 60 to the outside .of the cylinder .and to the outer end of thisopening a nipple 64'is connected in the manner shown in Fig. 8. y This nipple is of the type ordinarily employed in high pressure lubricating systemsandzby means of it Vthe opening can be .connected with a grease' gun'65shown'dotted in Fig. 7. The

interior of each cylinder 49 is connected by n means of a conduity 66 to a bearing.

4Let.uslnowfassume that the plungers 50| and the pistons 51to which vthey are attached are moved downwardly as far as they will go.' In this Aposition the lower .ends ofthe plungers f will be substantially in contact with the 'bottom of the cylinders 49. Thegreasegun is Dowfattachedandby meansfof it grease under pressure is forcedzinto the opening .60 `and thiswill fiow through opening 61 into the cylinders 49 and move the plungers 50 upwardly, thereby filling the cylinders 49 with grease. When the -hub 58-of the piston 51 en- Y ly the entire force will be used in opening this clogged conduit or bearing. As. the plungers move downwardly, the operator can be assured that each bearing is getting its proportional part of the lubrication.

From lthe above description it `will lbe apparent that by means of the deviceV described,

it is possible to simultaneously lubricate `a large number of bearings and to deliver to each" bearing an amount of lubricant that is lsuitable for thatV particular bearing. -Devices of this kind can be employed for all different kinds of machinery, including automobiles, locomotives and printing presses, and every machine where it is necessary to lubricate a large number of `bearings in the shortest time. V'A device of the kind-illustrated in F igs.v 1,2 and 3, is especiallywell adapted for use in connection with iiange lubricators for locomotives .as by means of it the required amount of lubrication ycan be delivered to each flange, regardless of the difference in temperature which would'otherwise operate to modify the distribution of lubricant in Vsuch devices.

In the above description three specifically different forms of this device have 'been illustrated `and these are merely vexamples of devices of this type. It is therefore the intentionof the applicants to claim this device broadly as it is evident that specifically'dif ferent modifications may readily be devised for accomplishing the function desired.

It is obvious that instead of using a threaded member like 3, 36 and 55 for applying force to the lubricant Vthat lcompressed air or steamcan be employed. In the above description yattention has been directed. to the noncircular resilient .conduits employed between the pressure device and the bearings. In addition to the advantages pointed out above, such conduits serve as resilient reservoirs that will yield when a bearing is clogged. and thereby provide a supply of lubricant that will y'be subjected to a pressure which will cause it to feed into 'the bearing when the obstruction isV removed as it usually will :be when the parts are in motion.

claimed as new is:

l. A lubricating system including a main conduit and a plurality of resilient noncircular branch conduits, means for producing a flow of lubricant through the main conduit and the branch conduits and means at the juncture of the main conduit and the branch conduits and operable solely by the pressure of the entering lubricant for distributing the low of lubricant in the branch conduits in a predetermined ratio for establishing a positive flow through each of the several branch conduits in accordance with the proportion of distribution allotted for each of the branch conduits.

2. Means for simultaneously lubricating a plurality of bearings, comprising a lubricant container, means for forcing the lubricant therefrom, a distributor containing` a plurality of distinct but intercommunicating compartments, conduits leading respectively from the said compartments to the bearings to be lubricated, a single conduit leading from the said container to the said distributer for simultaneously delivering` lubricant to the several compartments and means in each compartment operable by the pressure of the entering lubricant, for simultaneously eject- 'ing the same into the several conduits leading to the bearings to be lubricated.

3. Means for simultaneously lubricating a plurality of bearings, comprising a lubricant container, means for forcing the Vlubricant therefrom, a distributer containing a plurality of distinct but intercommunicating compartments, conduits leading respectively from the said compartments to the bearings to be lubricated, a single conduit leading from the said container to the said distributer for simultaneously delivering lubricant to the several compartments and means in each compartment operable by the pressure of the entering lubricant, for simultaneously ejecting the same into the several conduits leading to the bearing to be lubricated, the ejecting elements of all the compartments of the said distributer being connected to operate in unison.

4. Means for simultaneously lubricating a plurality of bearings, comprising, a lubricant container, means for forcing the lubricant therefrom, a plurality of bearings, a distributer located between the lubricant container and the bearings, the distributer having a plurality of interconnected gear pumps each having an intake and a delivery port, a separate conduit extending from the delivery port of each pump to a bearing, a conduit eX- tending from the lubricant container to the intake ports of the several pumps, and means for preventing the return of lubricant to the container.

5. In a device for lubricating bearings, in combination, a lubricant container, means for forcing lubricant therefrom, a conduit eX- tending from the container to the bearing, said conduit having flattened sides whereby the capacity per unit length of the conduit will be varied in accordance with the pressure, and means for preventing lubricant from returning to the lubricant container.

6. A lubricating system including a main conduit and a plurality of branch conduits, means for producing a flow of lubricant through the main conduit and the branch conduits and interconnected mechanical means at the ljuncture of the main conduit and the branch conduits and operable solely by the pressure of the entering lubricant for distributin g the flow of in the branch conduits in a predetermined ratio and for establishing a simultaneous positive flow through all of the several branch conduits in accordance with the distribution allotted for each of the branch conduits.

ln testimony whereof we affix our signatures.

GEORGE J. BANCROFT. MARTIN E. ANDERSON. 

